Evidence of meeting #136 for Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was seniors.
A recording is available from Parliament.
NDP
Bonita Zarrillo NDP Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC
You mentioned the gender wage gap. Has that been discussed at the round table?
President, Southern Nova Scotia Seasonal Workers Alliance
It's starting to, more and more. I mean, men will get a couple of dollars more than us, and they might work a little harder, but we work hard too. Nobody loves these jobs, but they're part of the economy, and when there isn't much else around, that's all there is. There are young ones coming in all the time, and I just tell them to go back to school.
NDP
Bonita Zarrillo NDP Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC
Right. Thank you so much.
Witness Tulk-Lane, I wanted to ask about the employers and the profile of seasonal workers for your members and for the members. What is the profile of a seasonal worker? I'm asking about the relation. Do they need housing? Are they coming from different provinces? Are they locals? I'm really trying to get an understanding of who is working in the seasonal industry.
Chief Executive Officer, Atlantic Chamber of Commerce
It's a little hard for me to speak to the businesses, as I'm almost a step removed. My members are the chamber. What I'm hearing is anything that they feed up to me that they're hearing, but I can definitely tell you that.... I mentioned our priorities, labour being one. One of the other top ones that has crept up is housing. Around employer circles and employer tables, we're seeing more social discussions now. Housing and health care are top on our agendas.
It's definitely quite a switch from a decade ago, when you'd sit in a room with employers and you'd talk about different things. Housing is actually one of our top priorities from an Atlantic chamber perspective. We're working with all the chambers and trying to figure out where we fit in as employers, because that housing piece definitely links to recruitment and retention of employees and labour.
Housing, I would say, is up there. As an employer association, I think we're still trying to find our place at the table with the village of people when it comes to housing. It is critical, and it does affect being able to hire a staff person or recruit someone to your community when there is no housing. We do have some—
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bobby Morrissey
Thank you, Ms. Zarrillo.
Madam Tulk-Lane, I'm sure you'll get another question where you can continue on.
We'll now move to Mr. Aitchison for five minutes.
Conservative
Scott Aitchison Conservative Parry Sound—Muskoka, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mrs. Tulk-Lane, you started to talk about housing, and you acknowledged that it is one of the big issues that your member organizations are hearing from their members.
Are you aware that when it comes to the construction of new homes, no one makes more money on new homes than governments at all levels—provincial, federal and municipal? Were you aware that government makes about 30% on every house?
Chief Executive Officer, Atlantic Chamber of Commerce
I've heard it discussed, but I haven't dug in or done any research on it.
Conservative
Scott Aitchison Conservative Parry Sound—Muskoka, ON
It's one of those areas where I think we could do a lot to reduce the cost of new homes by reducing the impact of government. I'll leave that with you so you're aware of it as well.
I'd like to move on to Ms. Symonds.
Ms. Symonds, I really appreciate what you're sharing with the committee; it's quite moving what you're sharing with us. As I've listened to you speak, I've been imagining the change you've seen in your community over your lifetime and over your career in the industry and how the industry has changed.
I'm wondering if you could speak more about this. You mentioned at one point how the cost of traps has doubled and the cost of fuel has gone up. I, of course, focus on housing—the cost of housing—and all these areas.
Can you speak to the cost of housing? Have you seen a big change in the cost of housing in your communities? We talk about big cities all the time, but not always about small communities, so I'm curious to know if you can speak to us about the cost of housing in your community.
President, Southern Nova Scotia Seasonal Workers Alliance
The cost of housing has skyrocketed through the roof. It's unimaginable. Nobody's building a new home around here anymore. I see people are starting to live more in campers. I hope someday that's not me and that's not a lot of other people, because if you can't afford the rent and you can't afford to build, where do you go from there? It's very frustrating. It's like a dead end.
Conservative
Scott Aitchison Conservative Parry Sound—Muskoka, ON
Can you speak to how much rents have changed, for example? You said they have skyrocketed and no new homes are getting built. Obviously, that has a massive impact on folks who are seasonally employed as they have mortgages and they're trying to pay their mortgages after interest rates spiked last year.
Do you have any experience with people you know who are in that circumstance and are struggling to pay their mortgages?
President, Southern Nova Scotia Seasonal Workers Alliance
Yes. When their mortgage renews, they don't know how they're going to handle it because they have to pay their mortgage, pay their regular bills and pay for food.
Rents have gone from $500 a month for a one-bedroom apartment to right now, where there are a couple new apartment buildings that have been built—smaller ones—where it's $1,200 a month in rent, and then you have your utilities. A senior I spoke to is looking for a roommate because his rent is $1,200 and he's had to go back to work in order to pay the rent and the utilities.
Conservative
Scott Aitchison Conservative Parry Sound—Muskoka, ON
He has had to go back to seasonal work, I assume. Is that correct?
Conservative
Scott Aitchison Conservative Parry Sound—Muskoka, ON
He's working longer just to barely get ahead, or just to barely get by, I guess, and not even get ahead.
President, Southern Nova Scotia Seasonal Workers Alliance
Yes. He's 70 years old.
Conservative
Scott Aitchison Conservative Parry Sound—Muskoka, ON
That's unbelievable.
You mentioned the cost of fuel for the boats and the challenge of keeping the fleet fuelled to get out there. I'm assuming it's gone up quite a bit, especially with things like carbon taxes and whatnot.
Can you speak to the cost of fuel and what it costs to operate lobster boats now?
President, Southern Nova Scotia Seasonal Workers Alliance
To go out on a day to set traps, which they will do Monday, weather permitting, is $1,000 or more. Some boats will be overloaded, which is dangerous; we've seen it before. Last winter, a guy was lost overboard.
There's the price of traps, and the price of bait has tripled with the shortage of ground fish, which is used for bait in the lobster industry. Since there isn't much of that around, the price has tripled.
I wouldn't want to guess. In a month, bait is $6,000 and fuel is about $10,000. In terms of traps, if they get caught in a storm and don't get them in, that's more expense bringing the traps back in when a storm's coming. You don't want them smashed and ending up on the beaches.
Yes, lobstering is very costly.
Conservative
Scott Aitchison Conservative Parry Sound—Muskoka, ON
Were you suggesting that some boat captains will overload their boats because of the cost of fuel? Do they need to try to get more?
President, Southern Nova Scotia Seasonal Workers Alliance
Sometimes, yes. I just saw a picture on social media. Sometimes when I go to the wharf and I look at them boats....
They're loading up now for opening day on Monday, which is another thing. It gets delayed. It was delayed a week one year that we lost work, and we were late starting, so that is all a factor in the EI and hours.
Weather determines a lot on when these boats go, whether it be for lobsters or groundfish. There's no guarantee of how much work there is, and there's no big industry here. They're beautiful little coastal communities, but there is no—
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bobby Morrissey
Thank you Mr. Aitchison and Ms. Symonds.
We will now go to Mr. Kusmierczyk, for five minutes.
Liberal
Irek Kusmierczyk Liberal Windsor—Tecumseh, ON
Thank you Mr. Chair, and thank you so much to the both of our witnesses for your excellent testimony here today.
I just want to go back really quickly to Ms. Symonds. Do you see climate change as having an impact on the lobster fishery and the seasonal work?
President, Southern Nova Scotia Seasonal Workers Alliance
Yes. Climate change plays a lot as to where the lobsters go when they molt in different stages and stuff. Are they way out in deeper water or are they in the warmer water—the weather, the temperature, the storms in the fall, the storms in the winter usually hitting in January.
We live right along the ocean, so the wind, all of it, the boats don't get out sometimes for a week. As I said, next Monday is dumping day, as they call it in southwest Nova Scotia, and DFO and the government regulate when the boats can go out. They won't let them go out if it's blowing hard.
Liberal
Irek Kusmierczyk Liberal Windsor—Tecumseh, ON
We've seen changes. I thank you for that testimony. You have been there. You have seen it. We've seen, for example, the decline of northern shrimp in the Gaspé area because of the warming ocean.
In your time—and I'm just curious how long you've been in the lobster sector—have you seen changes in the climate?
President, Southern Nova Scotia Seasonal Workers Alliance
I have been doing this since I was 15 years old. I am almost 61.
Over time, I never worried about EI. I went from lobster to groundfish, back to lobster to groundfish. EI wasn't a thing. With the downturn since the 1980s, and then in the 90s it started going down. Now all we have left is lobster. It's sad, and it's scary because that is on shaky ground.
The lobster moved from southwest Nova Scotia, and then in Newfoundland and PEI, their catches went up a little bit. In southwest Nova Scotia, we get lobsters from Deer Island now, and they will get them from PEI when they open.
Even though our season is six months, there are storms and everything, and we depend on other districts for their lobsters too.